Teachers learn about the microbial world

The Department of Biological Sciences recently hosted a teacher's workshop in conjunction with the Walter Moore Lecture in Ecology. Teachers from area middle schools, high schools, and universities participated in a hands-on workshop to learn how to teach about the microbial world. Loyola professors James Wee, Ph.D., and Craig Hood, Ph.D., joined visiting senior scientist David Patterson, Ph.D., from the Marine Biological Laboratory, to show area teachers how to use state-of-the-art microscopy and the Internet in their classrooms. Teachers from LusherMiddle School, BenFranklinHigh School, the New OrleansCharterScience & MathSchool, Teaching Responsible Earth Education (T.R.E.E.), LouisianaStateUniversityHealthSciencesCenter, and Children's Hospital prepared water and sediment samples from Lake Pontchartrain, received a tutorial on the organisms they found, and discovered new ways to teach about them.

The workshop focused on how to open students' eyes and minds to the otherwise largely hidden world of microorganisms through the use of micro*scope, an Internet web portal that provides tools to learn about the biology of microorganisms. In addition to learning methods of how to incoroporate this new software into their classes, participants also began a process of creating a collection of Internet images of the microorganisms of Lake Pontchartain that will be used by them in their classes and by the world once the Internet collection is completed.

The workshop was supported by the Biever Guest Lecture Series, Zeiss Microscopes Inc., and Loyola's Department of Biological Sciences.